Blood of Olympus
by Ovec8hkin
Summary: My version of Blood of Olympus. All characters, and overall plot line were created by and are owned by Rick Riordan.
1. Notes

**ALL RECOGNIZABLE CHARACTERS, PLOT LINES, OR OTHER THINGS ARE CREDITED TO RICK RIORDAN.**

**Please have read the House of Hades before reading this.**

**This is my thoughts on how the final book of, The Heroes of Olympus series, The Blood of Olympus, should go. THIS IS NOT THE BOOK. **

**I attempt to post daily or every other day. If there is not a new chapter posted after four days I will update this about what the hold up is. If there is no update PM me. **

**Reviews: Feel free to comment anything you wish about this story. I will delete anything I find unnecessary or offensive. Questions or ideas for/about the story...PM me. **

**Thank you.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Please review this if you have seen it. I post about two or three a week.**

**I have edited the majority of the chapters in some way or another, re-read and comment any suggestions.**

I

Nico

Shadow traveling alone is difficult to begin with. Factor in a thirty-foot statue, another person, and satyr and it was downright impossible. But there wasn't much choice in the matter. The Athena Parthenos had to get to Camp Half-Blood before the Roman demigods attacked.

Nico di'Angelo was a son of Hades, the Greek god of the Underworld. While being a son of Hades usually came with being disliked and distrusted by the majority of the world, it did come with some advantages. One of those was the ability to shadow travel. But the dangers that came with it were enormous, as Nico knew all too well. The first time he had tried it had had ended up unconscious for week in China; and that was just by himself. Now he had two other living beings and a several ton statute.

He, Reyna, and Coach Hedge all put a hand on the giant statue of Athena. As he looked back at the seven remaining demigods he realized that it was very likely he would never seen any of them again. There task was impossible.

Nico took another deep breath and imagined himself on top of a grassy hillside outside of Rome. He stepped forward and felt the, now somewhat familiar, feeling of shadow travel overtake his previous surroundings. There was nothing to see while traveling like this, nothing but a black void of shifting shadows and inky blackness. There were no sounds...no sights...no smells...nothing.

He knew this from his previous attempts at the form of travel. The second time he had decided to see what the shadow realm looked like and opened his eyes. The realm preceded to fall away into nothing and he had ended up in the middle of no where, exhausted and unable to move. He had decided then not to try again.

So this time he kept his mind firmly locked on his destination, just outside of Rome. There was rushing sound in his ears and small amounts of light were beginning to seep through his closed eyes. The first leg of the journey was almost done.

Nico opened his eyes to see that he, Reyna, Hedge, and the Athena Parthenos had all made the transfer. They were indeed on the same grassy hillside he had imagined. Rome stood in the distance. But that was all he could take in before he collapsed.

_The landscape was rocky and desolate. There was no wind and no clouds in the sky. The only notable feature at all was a massive hill of rock and stone with a twenty foot tall entry way carved into it. And the twelve giants that surrounded it._

_ "The demigods have sealed the doors." one of the giants said. "They are no longer under our control."_

_ "The doors matter no longer," Porphyrion, the giant king, responded. Our army is already big enough to destroy the demigods, and sacrifice them to Gaia. More are not needed." He was over a head taller than any of the other giants and he sat upon throne of stones._

_ "And how is it that we will finally destroy them? They are too smart to just walk into a trap." Polybotes asked. _

_ "Gaia needs only two of them to be sacrificed. And they are far to loyal to each other to abandon those we take." Porphyrion responded. "We simply send out the entire army to bring back one of them. If we have one...the rest will follow...and we can slaughter all seven at the foot of Olympus as a tribute to the Earth Mother. The Olympians final hope will be gone, Gaia will rise, and we shall inherit what is left of the earth." he finished. "There is no hope for the demigods. They may be able to take down one of us with the help of a god, but how will they fend when faced with half the demon hoard of Tartarus and the immortal storm giant."_

Nico awoke on the hillside. It was night. The stars were out, the glow of Rome was clearly visible on the horizon. And his friends were as good as dead. His dream had been no dream. It was a vision. And a bad one at that.

_I have to warn them _he thought. But that was all he could think about before he fell unconscious again.

_"And what about the Parthenos?'" asked Polybotes. The other giants nodded and murmured in agreement._

_ "Gaia already has that taken care of. A trap has been set for son of Hades. He and the Roman will not return the statue." Porphyrion responded quietly. He was obviously much more informed then any of the other giants. And they all seemed to recognize that fact, for none of them questioned him._

Nico flashed back into consciousness. Gaia had set a trap for them. They had to keep moving, before she could find them. But he had to warn the others before it was too late. The fate of the world and all of olympus was more important than the destruction of Camp Half-Blood. At least in Nico's perspective.

Reyna suddenly appeared from behind the Athena Parthenos.

"Your awake." she said expressionless. "Lets get moving." She did not sound happy that he was back conscious.

Nico stood up and said "The giants have planned an attack on the others. We have to warn them. Most of tartarus is going to be after them in matter of days!"

"We were told to get this statue," she gestured at the Athena Parthenos "back to the Camps before they go to war with each other. Not send rescue parties."

"If we don't warn them, the camps will be destroyed regardless!" Nico replied in yelling manner.

"And how do you expect to warn them if they are hundreds of miles away?" she asked, her voice somewhat sarcastic.

Nico sat down and thought about that for a while. _We DON'T have any way to contact them _he thought _Its no like I can shadow travel back._ And then the idea hit him. Hermes!

"We can send a message through Hermes!"

"How are we going to do that?" Reyna countered. t was again sarcastic

_There is always some issue isn't there?_ Nico thought. _There is no way to summon him, at least not one that works. I've tried._ He had tried, after his sister had died on her quest to rescue Artemis, Nico had tried everything to send her message. He had entered the Underworld himself but could not find her. He had personally asked Hades to see her, and was denied. And he had even resorted to asking the God of Messengers, the only god allowed in the underworld, if he could deliver a message. Hermes had never responded.

"I've tried before and nothing works?" he responded, finally defeated. It looked like the rest of the demigods were going to blind to the impending attack.

And that was when the earth began to shake and rumble. And then a single earthen hand rose out of the ground.


	3. Chapter 2

II

Piper

This was the first day since they had entered the ancient lands that no monsters had attacked the Argo II. At least until a three bodied freak flew at the ship on a fire-breathing horse.

Piper had almost forgotten about the many monsters that were hunting them down. Since Hazel had destroyed the chains securing the mortal side of the Doors of Death, no monsters had come anywhere near them. And the doors had been closed for two days now. She had almost begun to hope that they would meet no resistance traveling to Athens. How wrong she was.

It was sometime after noon in Greece, almost three days since the demigods had defeated Clytius at the Necromateion and sent Nico, Reyna, Coach Hedge, and the Athena Parthenos back to America. The sun was out for once (it had been shrouded behind clouds since the demigods had entered the Mediterranean), the weather was warmer (it had been quite cold during the journey between Rome and Epirus), and the surrounding snow capped mountains made the nice day even more beautiful.

Leo stood at the helm, navigating the the ship through the maze of mountains and passes, all the while keeping them on their eastward course towards Athens.

"Do you think there is going to be attack before we get to Athens?" Piper asked Jason as he had his sword flung out if his hand by Percy.

"Knowing Gaia and the giants. The meanest and worst of tartarus will be after us." Percy responded as Jason retrieved his sword.

"Again?" Jason asked, holding up his sword.

"Not now." Percy responded, tossing riptide aside. He had been sword fighting with Jason a couple times a day since his return from Tartarus to regain some of his strength. "I think I'm pretty much back to normal." he said.

"Point taken." Jason responded tossing aside his sword.

Percy went beneath deck, leaving Piper, Jason, and Leo above. Leo expertly maneuvered the Argo ll between two of the larger mountains Piper had ever seen. She looked up at them and could just barely make out their tops, shrouded in a now light layer of clouds. _I wish I could see the view from up there_ she thought. It seemed as if she would be able to see forever from atop one of those peaks.

She looked up again and saw Jason hovering some two hundred feet above the boat smirking at her.

"Show off!" she yelled at him. _He could go up there with out any help at all, but I have to stay stuck on the ground_ she thought as she began to walk away. She was the only one on deck now, for it appeared that Leo had left to do something inside.

Jason dropped down beside her, landing lightly on the deck.

"Are you done?" she asked, her foot hovering just above the first step that lead below deck.

"Not quite." Jason responded smiling. He grabbed her hand and leaped into the air before stopping. They were hovering a couple of feet above the deck of the ship. He smiled again and they soared off towards the peak of a mountain.

Flying was not quite what Piper had imagined. She had always imagined it to be fun, but at that moment particular, fun was not quite the right word. Terrifying fit better. She felt completely out of control, she knew that if anything happened her chances of surviving any type of fall from their current height would be worse than her chances at surviving their ensuing battle with the giants. So it was essentially below zero. But she was confident that Jason knew what he was doing, so that relieved some of the terror.

After a minute or so, Jason began to slow down, as they reached the top of the mountain. He flew just a couple of feet above the peak before setting her down and dropping down himself.

The view was exactly how Piper had thought it would be. The surrounding snow capped mountains created a perfect backdrop to the surrounding valleys and plains. She felt as if she would be able to see forever from there. The clouds that had once obscured the mountain peak had since dispersed and allowed for views straight to the heart of the mountain range.

But the most surprising sight was not one a good one. Far off in the distance, Piper could see a dark black mountain that towered over everything around it. Dark storm clouds completely encompassed it and made it look quite formidable. _The original Mount Olympus_ Piper realized. She did not know how she knew but she was completely sure her thought was correct.

Jason put his arm around her shoulder. Even though it was not cold on top of the mountain, Piper felt her whole body warm up at his touch. They stood their for a couple of minutes, enjoying the view and each other.

_This is a perfect moment _Piper thought. It was so perfect that she could almost forget about the impending fight with the giants. Forget about all the danger that was soon to come. She could have forgotten about everything at that moment. But of course, that could not last too long.

"What is that?" Jason said, startled, ta. He was looking off to the opposite mountain top. Piper looked the same way, just as a jet of fire blasted off from the top of it.

They were maybe a couple of hundred feet from that peak, but the source of the fire was unknown. And that was when they noticed the flying horse that was coming after them. It dove straight at Jason who rolled away at the last minute. Then it set its sights on Piper.

The horse was big. Bigger than Hazel's horse, Arion. It was jet black with some hints of red and orange flecked throughout.

Piper slowly inched backwards, away from the demon animal. The horse charged and she jumped out of the way at the last second. When it did not hit anything, the horse stopped and turned. It began walking towards Piper again. It was breathing fire now. _Why_ she thought w_hy are we always interrupted by some monster who wants us dead_.

She drew Katoptris and held it up in a somewhat menacing position. She knew that it would not be of much help in this case, but it was better than nothing.

The fire-breathing horse continued its advance. Piper was being forced back towards the edge of mountain top, pretty soon there would be no where left to go. The horse pawed (or hoofed in this case) the ground with its hoofed foot. It lowered its head and charged her again. Piper leaped away again. But her timing, and luck, were off.

The demonic monster turned its head at the last second and clipped her back foot. Piper landed off balance, twisting her ankle, and falling to the ground.

Piper tried to get up but her left leg collapsed as soon she put any weight on it. Her ankle was defiantly injured. She turned her head to see Jason rising from the ground. He looked slightly dazed, like his head was filled with fluff.

The horse was almost on top of her again, and this time she had no way to escape. She had dropped Katoptris as she had fallen, and it was now far out of reach. She attempted to wriggle forward to grab the knife, but the flaming horse would have none of that.

As if it knew what she was doing, it took five steps forward and exhaled a jet of flame over the bronze knife. The fire wrapped itself around Katoptris, as if it was being controlled.

While the knife did not catch fire, melt, or otherwise change, but Piper knew that attempting to grab it, even by its wooden hilt, would be a devastating mistake. She shrank back from the steaming blade, realizing her last hope for survival was gone. This demonic horse was going to kill her before she even got to Athens. There would be no final battle for the demigods, for she would be dead and the group of seven foretold in the prophecy would be made six. Gaia and the giants would destroy Olympus and all of her friends with it.

The horse, who was now in front of her, turned around. It stared at her with emotionless eyes. It could care less that it was about to destroy the world. Piper heard it inhale and knew that it was all about to be over. She closed her eyes and waited for the burning sensation that would soon follow.

But it never came.

She felt the horse violently shift to her right and heard it exhale a blast of fire. She opened her eyes as a jet of flame encompassed her injured left ankle.

Piper had never suffered a burn from any type of fire before, but it was far worse than she could have ever imagined. It felt is if her ankle and foot were melting, and she knew that she was going to have a lot of issues walking from that point on. The pain that ensued was excruciating. It masked everything that was going on around her. She heard nothing but her own pounding heart and only felt the intense burning sensation that encompassed her entire lower leg. She tried to rise to a sitting position, the pain made her stop before she had made it even halfway up.

Through tears, Piper could just make out the fuzzy shapes of Jason and the horse fighting. Jason was flying a couple of feet above the fire-breathing horse, successfully dodging all of its fiery attacks. She saw him grab the horse around the neck, almost in a type of bear hug, and appear to try and wrestle it. He succeeded in getting it turned around so that its back was too mountain side just at it blasted a jet of fire at him.

And then he did something really stupid. Jason backed up and dove at the horses legs. The horse was crippled, and flew off the edge of the cliff along with Jason.


	4. Chapter 3

III

Piper

Piper's head was swimming. Her burnt ankle and foot felt as if they were still on fire. Jason had just jumped off the side of the mountain with a horse. And the rest of the Argo II had no idea at all where they were. They would just keep flying west, assuming that they were both on board. They would not realize anything was wrong until they both did not show up for dinner that night. And they could be fifty or more miles away by that time. She would be left on this mountain top to die.

She called out for help, hoping someone would from the Argo would here her. There was no response. Piper attempted to crawl over to the edge of the peak, hoping to be able to see the Argo, but any movement she made caused her entire leg to flare up in pain.

She could not move. Her friends could not hear her. And the only person who knew she was here had just dove off a cliff after tackling a demonic horse. It could not get too much worse. Right?

Wrong.

As Piper lay there, completely immobilized, crying softly to herself, three people walked up onto the mountain peak. Piper raised her head off the ground just a bit to see who it was. She hoped that it was her friends coming to recuse her. The one in the middle had on a yellow colored shirt, the same as Hazel that day.

"Hazel?" she asked. The person did not respond. It obviously was not one of her friends. She tried to rise a little bit more but could not.

Piper blinked a couple of times, clearing her eyes of tears. What she saw was so much worse than the demonic horse that had attacker her just minutes before. There were not three people on the mountain, there was one...with three bodies. Each body was connected at the shoulder, with an arm coming out of the left and right most torsos. A single human head and neck jutted out of the middle body. Its face was weathered and brown with slick black hair and a pencil-thin mustache.

The three bodied monster walked toward her. He was carrying a double edged sword roughly two feet long. It stopped a couple of feet before her and raised its sword.

Piper's eyes grew wide in fear. She scrambled backward despite the fact that her leg felt like it was getting ready to fall off. The monster continued forward with its sword raised. She had no where left to go.

The monster swung the sword down in a menacing arc at her. She rolled to the left just in time, as the sword stuck in the ground where her head had been a moment earlier.

She tried to stand but her leg would not allow for it. The monster turned and swung the sword at her again.

Piper rolled sideways again and noticed that Katoptris was not more than foot away from her now.

She crawled forward the final distance and grabbed her weapon. It was still blisteringly hot, causing the numerous scratches and cuts on her hands and fingers to sear with pain. But she was sure that without it, the monster would kill her. Not that the knife was going to offer much protection.

She heard the monster behind her. She turned around and barely blocked its next attack with Katoptris. Piper had not even heard him approaching.

She felt herself lose her handle on Katoptris and saw it drop to the ground beside her. The monster did not wait to attack this time. It swung its sword in a downward arc again. Piper turned her head, narrowly avoiding the sword stroke. She let out a yelp as the sword passed within inches of her face. She reached for and grabbed Katoptris a second time.

Her attacker came after her again. This time, instead of a downward strike, it swung its sword horizontally. The attack hit Piper's knife side on and sent it careening over the side of the mountain. Her final hope was gone. Piper closed her eyes and waited for the blow that was surely going to end her life.

And then Jason joined the fight.

Jason flew at her attacker holding Katoptris like a sword. He swung and attacked with it relentlessly, forcing the monster back towards the cliff side. But it still had the advantage.

While Jason was the much better swordsman the creature's sword was five times longer than his. And heavier.

Jason swung at the monsters head with the knife and had it ripped from his hands by the longer blade. Katoptris flew across the mountain top before colliding with a rock and dropping to the ground.

The sword-wielding monster had complete control now. Jason was weaponless. Piper was injured. No reinforcements were coming. And it still had a three foot long sword. The chances for survival were about as good as zero. But they had been for the last five minutes and she and Jason were still alive.

The monster swung its sword at Jason who dodged it easily. It swung five more times without so much as coming close to him. He was backed up to the very edge of the mountain top. Another step backward and he would be falling.

But Jason had different idea.

When the next strike came, he jumped backwards into mid air and hovered. He flew high over the monster's head and retrieved Katoptris. Then he flew at the creature with the knife and attacked.

The monster was forced backwards by Jason's vicious attacks and was now standing where Jason had stood just seconds prior. It tried to defend against the attacks with Katoptris but Jason's ability outmatched the creature. With one final strike, he sent the creature plummeting over the side of the mountain.

He stood there for a moment, watching as the monster fell the thousands of feet to the valley floor, then ran over to where Piper lay immobilized.

"Are you okay?" he asked, kneeling down next to her. Piper nodded her head. And that was when Jason noticed the condition of her leg. It was brilliant shade of red with some parts almost black. Near the edges of the burn, some skin was already beginning to peel off, like a sunburn. Her ankle was twisted at a completely unnatural angle, seemingly broken. The shoes she had been wearing earlier in the day were gone, burned off completely.

"Can you walk at all?" he asked, concerned. She shook her head no.

"I can't even stand." she responded. The several times she had tried to, she had collapsed the second any amount of weight was put on it.

"I need to get you back to the Argo." Jason said as he picked her up off the ground. He walked over to the side of the mountain, where Piper could just make out the Argo II disappearing behind a nearby mountain. She was not sure how Jason was going to manage fly and carry her at the same time, but at the moment she really just wanted to get off that mountain.

"Hang on." he said. So Piper wrapped her arms around his neck.

Jason jumped into the air and flew off towards the ship.


	5. Chapter 4

IV

Piper

Piper had not realized how badly her leg was injured until her life was not in imminent danger. But that only lasted a couple of more minutes.

Since Jason had taken off towards the Argo II, her ankle, which she was almost positive was broken, had become almost twice as painful as before, partially due to the fact that it had swollen to almost twice its regular size. She did not know whether it was because it was dangling in mid air with nothing to support it, she had furthered injured it escaping from the sword-wielding monster, or some other unknown reason. But regardless, she could barely move it without shooting pains racing through her leg.

Jason shot her a concerned look a couple of times, but she said she was fine and he kept flying. She knew Jason knew she was completely lying to him, but she was deathly afraid of him setting her down and going back for help alone.

They had almost made it back when the third wave of attackers came.

Jason was flying over the top of the mountain that they had seen the ship pass behind when Piper saw a sharp black dart fly past. She looked back and saw a flock of birds following them. Their beaks glinted gold in the afternoon light.

_Stymphalian birds! _she realized. "Ummm...Jason, we're being trailed by Stymphalian birds." she said, her voice slightly panicky. Stymphalian birds on the ground were one problem. In the air, without weapons (Jason had Katoptris tucked away somewhere with no way to get to it), and essentially crippled, they were in a lot more trouble.

Jason looked back, saw the incoming birds, and dove almost straight down. The Argo II was a little bit farther ahead of them, but Piper could see that Percy, Annabeth, Frank, and Hazel all had their weapons drawn. She presumed that Leo was stilling navigating the ship, but she could not tell. Knowing Leo, he was probably completely oblivious, since the alarm bells were going off.

She saw Frank shoot an arrow from his bow and heard a loud squack behind them as one of the birds fell out of the sky. Jason lessened his dive and rerouted himself back to the Argo. Piper heard another squack and another bird dropped to the ground.

And that was when everything went wrong.

She looked back and saw several poisonous darts racing towards her and Jason. They were feathers from the stymphalian birds, and they were deadly if you they found their marks. She tried to warn Jason, who was still oblivious to the incoming peril, but did not have enough time. The feathers rained down on them.

She saw one imbed itself in Jason's calf, causing him to falter in mid-air and drop several feet uncontrolled. He regained his ability to fly and made a bee line for the ship. Piper looked back just as the final feathered dart stuck in her right arm.

It was like someone had lit her blood on fire. She cried out in pain just as Jason landed on deck with her. She heard Frank shoot the last bird out of the sky as Jason set her down and then collapsed himself. Annabeth was already coming back with what looked like ambrosia and nectar but Piper was not sure. The pain and poison that was not enveloping her right arm had clouded her vision. Nothing was much more than a colored haze.

Piper saw a blurry form of Hazel next to her, unzipping a bag of a ambrosia squares. She heard her calling her name but she could not respond. Her head felt like it was filled with feathers. She could not even begin to think of how to respond, or do anything for that matter.

Hazel took one of the squares and held it next to her mouth. Through the cloud of fog that now encompassed the majority of Piper's brain she opened her mouth and bit down weakly on the square. A small portion of it came off into her mouth.

The taste of her dads black bean soup flooded her taste buds. Almost instantly her vision cleared up and brain unfogged some. But the dart wound and her injured leg remained unhealed. They actually felt more painful.

She lifted her head, which felt liked it was made of lead, and saw that her foot and ankle were the same as before. Her ankle looked like it was even more swollen. And her foot looked like she had just run through a field of fire. There was no skin that was left that looked healthy. The majority of it was a deep red, almost maroon, color that did not look good to Piper.

She then looked down at her arm and immediately wished she had not. The arrow itself was embedded at least an two inches into her arm. The area immediately around it was a dark sickly green and her veins were a dark red almost black color. Further from the arrow wound, her skin consisted of varying shades of red, ranging from that of a bad sunburn to a light pink color.

Piper knew that the darts were poisonous, but some of the other demigods had been shot before and healed fine after the ambrosia. What was different with her?

"Umm...Annabeth we have a problem?" Hazel called, her eyes never leaving Piper's arm. Annabeth, who had just finished giving Jason his ambrosia square and a sip of nectar, came over. She took one look at her arm and Piper knew she was in serious trouble. If Annabeth looked concerned about something, there was reason to be concerned.

She sat down next to Piper and gripped the shaft of the feather. "Tell me when it starts to hurt." she said. The fact that she said _when_ and not _if _did not help her confidence at all.

Annabeth shifted her grip on the feather and began to pull it out. At first, Piper did not feel anything, almost as if all the nerves in her arm had disappeared. Then the wave of pain hit.

Regardless of the fact that she had broken her ankle, had her foot burned, and had been shot with a poisonous feathered dart all in the span of amount fifteen minutes that day, none of it compared to what it felt like to have that dart pulled out of her arm.

Going in, it felt like the dart had lit her blood on fire. Coming out, it felt like her blood had been substituted for gasoline and then lit on fire. After less than a second she felt herself begin to lose consciousness but she forced herself to stay awake. She screamed the entire time.

When the arrow was finally out of her arm, Piper rolled over onto her side, sobbing. She could here her friends talking in concerned voices but she could have cared less as that moment. She eventually felt Jason pick her up and carry her inside to her cabin. He laid her on her bed as Annabeth and Hazel came in carrying the majority of the ships medical supplies.

Annabeth set a container of ambrosia squares on the floor while Hazel brought a pitcher of nectar and water. Annabeth took out a small towel and soaked in water before pressing it against the open dart wound.

While the water burned horribly, it did relieve a bit of the pain from her arm. Piper opened her eyes for the first time in several minutes and took several shaky breaths. She wiped some of the remaining tears from her eyes with her left hand before closing them again.

"I have no idea what's wrong with her?" she heard Annabeth whisper to Hazel and Jason. "I've never seen anything like this at all. And we've been attacked multiple times by Stymphalian birds. None of their arrows have caused damage like this."

"And why didn't the ambrosia and nectar have any effect? They're supposed cure everything aren't they?" Hazel asked.

"I don't know. My only theory is that because the Gods are weakening, the effect of their food and drink is too. But that's just my theory?" They were both whispering.

"How are we going to fix this?" Jason asked. "She can't walk at all and that wound looks pretty bad. She wouldn't be able to do anything."

But that was all she heard before her arm flared up in pain. She scrunched her eyes together, trying desperately to stay consciousness. Just when she felt herself losing that battle, a set of hands reached out and shook and her arm.

She opened her eyes to see Annabeth and Jason standing over her with very worried expressions. Her arm still hurt horribly.

"Piper!? Piper!?" Annabeth asked. "Piper, whats wrong?"

"My...arm." she said through ragged breaths.

"Hazel, pour a cup of nectar into one one of those cups." Annabeth said. Piper's arm had swollen to a couple of times the size of normal. The discolored area had grown in size.

Hazel handed Annabeth the cup of nectar. She proceeded to dump the entire thing onto Piper's arm. The drink sizzled and steamed when it came into contact with the wound, but it had little to no effect.

Then the alarm bells rang.


	6. Chapter 5

V

Jason

Jason was defiantly not happy with that fire-breathing horse. First it attacked him and Piper in the middle of a semi-romantic setting. Second, it had severely injured his girlfriend. Third, it was the reason why Piper had almost been killed by that sword wielding, three bodied monster. And finally, it was the reason why the alarm bells had suddenly sounded, drawing the three demigods away from their friend, in need of medical attention.

Originally, Jason had told Annabeth and Hazel to stay put and take care of Piper, but it was Piper who insisted that the others go see what was wrong. She appeared a little bit better than she had on deck.

"Are you sure Piper?" Hazel asked, not believing the comment.

Piper nodded weakly in response.

Jason could tell she was not in the mood or condition to argue, so the three of them raced up the stairs to find out what monster had decided to attack them this time.

When they arrived above decks they were greeted with a blast of fire. They all dove back below decks to avoid the deadly flames. Jason was the first to his feet and out the doorway. He grabbed his sword from its place leaning against the wall and immediately leaped into the air to confront the culprit of that jet of flame.

It did not take long to find the source. It was the same fire breathing horse he and Piper had met on top of the mountain. Jason flew at it before he took in the entire scene. He raised his sword, getting ready to lop off the horse's head when he had sword ripped from his hands and was sent crashing back to earth.

Jason looked up and saw the three-bodied monster that he fought off with Katoptris riding the horse. It looked down and laughed.

"Geryon!" Percy yelled, throwing riptide at the monster. The sword stuck itself in the monsters middle body. Geryon lurched forward, but simply pulled the sword out of his back and through it, frisbee style, in the surrounding mountains.

Jason looked at the monster wide-eyed. It had just had a sword plunged through its body and it was perfectly fine. Jason stood up and flew at the horse again. Geryon swung his sword at him but Jason dodged it easily. He thrust his sword at the horse and watched as it plunged hilt deep into its black skin.

The horse immediately turned to dust, sending Geryon to the ground. Jason dropped from his position in the sky and landed a couple of feet from the monster. He swung his sword in a downward arc at its head, but Geryon blocked.

Jason saw Percy running forward, Riptide, which magically reappeared in its pen form when lost, held high over his head. Geryon was double-teamed and completely screwed. Percy swung riptide in a murderous arc at his sword arm. The blow connected but only sent Geryon's sword careening over the side of the ship.

Geryon was completely defenseless. He was lacking a weapon, was double-teamed by two very angry demigods, and had lost his prized horse. But he still had the birds.

Before, Percy or Jason could attack again, stymphalian feathers rained down on them from above. Percy batted three out of the air before one grazed his arm. Jason remained unharmed through the process.

"Frank, shoot down the birds!" Jason yelled as he attacked Geryon, who had pulled a second sword out of no where. He swung his sword at the monster who blocked it easily. Jason heard two screeches and saw two stymphalian birds drop from the sky with arrows in them.

Geryon swung his sword a second time at Jason's feet. He jumped the swing easily and took the opportunity to attack. He backed Geryon to the very front of the ship, where it narrowed considerably. Because of his extra bodies, Geryon could only back up about half-as-much as a normal person. He was officially cornered.

Geryon swung at Jason again, but Jason blocked the strike with ease and flung his second sword into the mountains. That was when Frank, Hazel, and Annabeth stepped in. They all carried weapons. Frank, his bow. Hazel, her cavalry sword. And Annabeth, her knife.

"Thank's for the help." Jason told his friends sarcastically.

Frank knocked an arrow to his bow string, ready to shoot at a moments notice. Geryon just laughed, "Kill me and you friend will be dead in matter of days." he said. That caused Frank to lower his bow.

Jason raised his sword, "What did you do to her?!" he asked, his voice deadly serious. He would not hesitate to kill Geryon if he refused to answer. He could go and rot in Tartarus for another hundred years for all Jason cared. At the moment, the only thing that mattered was healing Piper.

"She was attacked by a rare breed of bird. They act much like Stymphalian birds, but their feathers contain blood straight from the heart of Chaos. It is an incurable poison." Geryon responded smiling.

"Thats a lie!" Jason yelled, pressing the tip of his sword to Geryon's throat, "I was hit by a feather as well. And I am just fine." he said through gritted teeth. "Now tell us the truth. Or I will send you back to Tartarus." He pressed his Gladius deeper into Geryon's throat, drawing blood.

The smile was gone from Geryon's face and was replaced with a look of fear at the mention of Tartarus. "Only one of those birds was from Chaos. But it still remains un cure-able."

"Every poison has a cure." Annabeth said calmly. "You know what it is. Now what do you want for it?" Her voice was even more serious than Jason's.

"Gaia had promised a price you can't hope to match." he said laughing.

"Oh really?" Hazel said. A bar of gold appeared in her hand. "Because I can give you as much as you want."

Geryon eyed the bar of gold hungrily. "Gaia told me about you, daughter of Pluto. You were to be my reward for killing any of you off." He stepped forward, but had a sword at his throat before he could do anything else.

"Make another move and I will send you back to the Underworld." Jason said, pushing him back to his original place. "Now what is the cure."

Geryon looked at Hazel and the bar of gold she held. "How much of that can you make."

"As much as you want." she responded.

Geryon stood there for a while. Just as Jason was getting ready to ask for a reply he responded. "I'll tell you the cure..." he said, "If she.." he pointed at Hazel "agrees to come back to my ranch and work for me."

"Out of the que..." Frank was interrupted by Hazel.

"Let me tell you later" she said.

"I'll give you one hour. If you don't agree, your friend will die. And Gaia will give you too me anyway."


	7. Chapter 6

VI

Hazel

Hazel did not like the prospect of working for a three-bodied monster. But then again, there was not much of a choice. It was that or let Piper die, Gaia win, and be forced to do it anyway.

The four demigods called Leo from from his position steering the ship (turned out he killed several dozen stymphalian birds while they had been bartering with Geryon) and told him to watch their new "partner". Leo pushed a couple buttons on the archimedes sphere and ropes shot out, binding Geryon's arm behind his back and securing them around Festus's head.

"He won't be going anywhere." Leo said satisfied.

Together they all walked below decks to the mess hall where they found Percy finishing a cup of nectar. Apparently the recent stymphalian bird attack had been by stymphalian birds, seeing as Percy was perfectly fine.

"What did I miss?" he said as the rest of them fell into chairs surrounding the table.

Jason summarized their meeting with Geryon. "I don't think we have too much of a choice." he finished. "Its this or Gaia will rise and the Gods will fall."

"How do you know he was telling the truth?" Percy questioned.

The four who had been at the "meeting", as it was now being referred to, all looked at him and spoken essentially in unison.

"He was telling the truth."

Percy sighed. "Its the only way, but I guess its up to Hazel."

They all looked at her.

"If I don't then Piper will die and Gaia will force me into it anyway. This way we still have a chance to win this war." she said.

"But if you gone then we are down to six.". It was one of he few times that Leo had spoken since the battle at the Necromaetion.

Hazel sighed. She had never told anyone about her curse, but it did not look like she could conceal any longer. "Any of the stuff I pull from the ground," a gold bar appeared at the center of the table, "is cursed. Whoever uses it has extreme cases of bad luck. It should work the same way this time."

"And if it doesn't?!" Frank asked, he had not spoken since she had semi-volunteered to tale up the offer. "What if its different this time?". Frank, always the pessimist.

"Shadow travel." she said calmly. She had already thought it through. "As far as Nico knows it cant be tracked. So if the curse doesn't work I can just shadow travel away. And who knows, it could be helpful if i'm inside enemy lines. I might learn something important." She doubted those last words but if she could convince Frank to let her go she knew she would be able to get away. "But just in case, how do I kill this thing. Percy through Riptide right through his chest and he just pulled it out and kept going."

It was Annabeth who answered first, "Geryon's three bodies each contain a heart. Exactly where one should be. All three hearts have to be destroyed simultaneously or he will just regenerate. Percy killed him the first time by shooting an arrow clean through his body.". Percy nodded at the last part.

"He acts tough but he isn't very skilled with that sword. He can be beaten, its just the three hearts that are the problem" Percy added.

"So I guess that only leaves one thing undecided?" Jason said. "Who's tagging along with her and the monster?"

Everything was ready. Frank had grudgingly agreed to let Hazel go. The group had decided that Jason and Percy would accompany her and Geryon to retrieve the antidote. They would be informing Geryon in a couple minutes of their decision. But Hazel wanted to talk to Piper before she left. After all, everything they were about to do was for her.

She knocked on Piper's closed cabin door (Annabeth had closed it when the alarm bells went off) and walked in. Piper was laying on her bed almost exactly had they had left her. Her arm had begun to swell and was even more discolored than before. Her eyes were closed.

"Piper?" she asked. She could not tell if she was asleep or not.

Piper opened her eyes and weakly nodded her head.

Hazel took that as meaning "go on" so she started. "We have Geryon captured on deck and he is going to tell us how to cure you." she paused waiting for some sign that Piper was listening.

Piper shifted positions to where she was somewhat sitting. She looked a lot more alert than before. Hazel continued:

"Me, Jason, and Percy are going with him to get the antidote. It supposed to cure the poison that the bird feather injected into you."

Piper's eyes widened at that. She coughed into her hand and asked her first question, "How long...before...the cure comes...back?" she choked out between fits of coughing. Her voice sounded like she had not used it for months on end. Hazel poured her a cup of water from the pitcher on her nightstand.

"I don't know." Hazel said, her head down. She did not want to tell Piper that she probably only had a couple of days to live if the cure did not work, but she felt that it was pretty important, and she was almost a hundred percent sure that Jason would not tell her. "Geryon says that without the antidote, you might only live a couple of days."

Hazel heard a barely audible squeak from Piper. She looked over at her friend to see that her skin had turned paper white. Her eyes had widened to the size of dinner plates and Hazel could barely see her breathing. For a second, Hazel was afraid of her fainting but instead her eyes spilled over with tears.

Hazel was sure that being told you only had a couple of days to live was not a good thing to hear after being severely injured, attacked by a three-bodied monster, and then poisoned by a one of a kind bird. Piper had had a very bad day so far, and Hazel's latest news had made it a lot worse.

Piper was full out crying at this point. Not knowing what else to do, Hazel leaned over and hugged her friend. They had never been particularly close but at the moment, they could have been best friends. Unfortunately, Hazel still had one piece of information to tell her.

She broke off the embrace and waited for Piper to calm down a little. After a couple of minutes, Piper had stopped actively crying and Hazel decided now was the best time to inform her of her last piece of information.

"There's one more thing Piper. Geryon is demanding that in exchange for the cure, I go back to work for him back at his ranch."

"YOU CAN'T!" she screamed. It was not her normal Piper scream, it sounded like she had not drunk any water for weeks. It was raspy and barely audible, but Hazel knew what it would have sounded like if she was fine.

"I don't have a choice. It was that or he wouldn't tell us the cure. It was our only option."

Piper's eyes filled with tears again. But Hazel could tell they were different. They were not from fear for her own life, but for fear for hers.

"Its okay. I'll shadow travel back as soon as possible." Hazel consoled. That seemed to alleviate some of Piper's fears but Hazel could still tell she was scared for her.

"Jason still wants to talk to you." she said, "Is that okay?". Piper nodded yes and Hazel exited the room.

There was still fifteen minutes before the hour deadline set by Geryon. And Hazel had one more person to talk too. She walked down the hall and into Frank's room (his door had been standing wide open).

Frank was sitting on his bed with his bow leaning against the wall. She stood in front of him and waited for him to acknowledge her presence. After a minute of standing there, Hazel cracked:

"Hello?" she asked in a sarcastic, slightly aggravated voice, waving her hand in front of Frank's face. He looked up at her for the first time since they had decided to go ahead with the plan. Hazel knew that he was not happy with her decision but there was not any other way.

"I'm going to do this whether you like it or not."

"And I still won't be happy about it." Frank countered.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked exasperated, "If I don't, Piper will die and this whole war will be over!"

"And how do we know we can trust this guy?!"

Hazel had hoped that point would not have been brought up, because she had no good response. _There is no way to know _she thought _but we still don't have a choice. _

She sighed, "It doesn't matter. I'm leaving in..."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT DOESN'T MATTER?! IT COMPLETELY MATTERS!" Frank exploded. The two of them had never had a real argument like this before.

"I meant it doesn't matter to ME. " she pointed at herself. "Besides, if I DON"T go, Gaia will rise and send me there anyway. And I can almost guarantee that shadow traveling won't work then." Hazel could tell those words had made a point. She saw Frank's expression soften just a little bit. But enough to let her know she had won that battle.

"Fine." Frank grumbled as he stood up. He grabbed his bow from beside his bed. Hazel gave him a hug and they both exited the cabin to find out the cure for their friend.

"I'll go back to work for you." Hazel said, as Jason cut the ropes that had bound Geryon to the ship.

"Excellent...now for the cure." Geryon said as he stood up.

"Before we get to that." Jason interrupted. "I want to know one more thing. When I attacked your fire-breathing horse on top of that mountain, her foot and ankle were blasted with one of the jets of fire. Why didn't they heal with the ambrosia and nectar?"

Geryon revealed a vile of clear gel, "That horse is temperamental." He tossed Jason the vile. "Give that too her and she should be fine."

Jason looked at the vile somewhat suspiciously. He handed to Annabeth who pocketed it.

"Now the cure?"

"Yes the cure." Geryon stated. "The blood of chaos is formed by the confluence of five rivers. The five rivers of the underworld. Combine, the rivers and add a drop of blood from a monster of tartarus and you have the cure."

Hazel, Jason, and Percy all shared looks of fear. They were going to tartarus.


	8. Chapter 7

VII

Nico

They had just barely made it away in time. When the massive hand had rose up from out of the ground, it had made a swipe had Nico, who rolled away just in time. Reyna proceeded to stab the thing, but considering it was literally made of rock and dirt, nothing happened.

By now, the sounds of battle and earthen body parts rising from the ground had awoken Coach Hedge.

"Reyna! Come on!" Nico yelled. Reyna was still distracted trying to kill the massive uncoordinated hand. He ran towards the Athena Parthenos, _We have to get away _he thought. When he finally reached the massive statue, he looked back to see that Reyna had finally given up on the hand and was racing after the statue as well. He heard her yell "Go!".

He envisioned a cave. Why, he did not know, but that was what popped into his mind. He heard Reyna yell "go" again, and he assumed that she was in contact with the Parthenos. He stepped forward, and into the void of shadows.

This time, it felt like it took much longer to reach their destination. But then again, they were traveling a farther distance. When the three of them finally exited the shadow world they were not met with a nice sight.

The cave itself was dark and menacing. Stalactites hung from ceiling and the sound of dripping water echoed across the cave walls. And then their were monsters/ A manticore and three laistrygonian giants were standing there waiting for them. The giants each held a large iron club, and the manticore was in its natural lion/scorpion form. They were in a lot of trouble. And then the very friendly hand of earth that had just attacked them joined in.

Nico could feel himself beginning to lose consciousness, but he managed to draw his sword of stygian iron just before the laistrygonians and the giant hand attacked. He swung weakly at the giant who went for him but had his sword thrown from his hand. The laistrygonian picked him up forcibly as he fell unconscious.

_"I have captured the Athena Parthenos" came a voice from the ground. "The camps and the gods will be at war before long."_

_"Geryon has reported back. The bird of Chaos has done its job. One of the demigods has been poisoned and another three are reportedly going with him to Tartarus to get the antidote." Porphyrion said in return. He laughed a sinister, evil laugh. "The plan has worked perfectly." he paused "Is it time to send the storm giant?"_

_"Not yet," breathed back the earth. "We need another before we can send him out."_

_"Yes, mother." the giant said reverently._

_"Who is going with Geryon?"_

_"He reported back that it was the son of Poseidon, the daughter of Pluto, and Jason Grace, son of Jupiter." Porphyrion said. He almost growled Jason's name._

_"Perfect. Ensure that the girl escapes and contacts the others. We can go ahead and sacrifice the other two as planned." Gaia commanded._

_"Yes, mother." _

Nico awoke in a dark chamber. It was so dark that even his increased dark vision (another gift from Hades) did not reveal anything.

"Reyna?" he called out into the darkness. "Coach Hedge?" he did not expect to here anything in return. So he surprised when Reyna's voice responded. She was too far away for him to here what she was saying.

He reached for his sword before realizing that the laistrygonian had disarmed him before he blacked out. _Great _he thought_ no light._

Nico stood up and walked forward a couple of steps before hitting a wall. He tried the other way. Same thing. _This is a very narrow room _he thought. He returned where he estimated his original position was and walked to what would have been his left.

Left seemed to be more rewarding at first, but after about twenty os so steps. Another wall blocked his path. He tried to touch walls on either side of him but found that they had disappeared. He now had the option to go left or right. _Well, left was good last time. _So he chose the left path.

"Reyna?" he called again. There was a response from far ahead of him. It sounded like it was straight ahead.

Nico continued walking forward, keeping one hand on a wall so he would know when there was a break or turn. He called Reyna's name a couple more times, just to check to see if he was still going the right way. Each time there was answer, but it did not seem to be getting any closer.

He walked for what seemed like hours before he finally Reyna. He had not called her name for sometime because he had not felt any breaks in the wall, and thus almost tripped over her in the dark.

"What are you doing?!" she snapped at him.

"Trying to find you." he snapped back.

They stood their, seemingly glaring at where they thought the other was in the darkness. Nico heard Reyna draw her sword and saw a very faint glow light up the surrounding area. The room was now so much a room but more like a hallway. It was maybe six feet wide with a ceiling about fifteen feet over head. As far as the light shown, the passageway was endless.

"Where are we?" Nico asked to no one in particular. He had been to a lot of caves and odd dark places before, but this place was truly something different. He had been down here (awake) for at least an hour he presumed, and his eyes had not adapted at all.

"Isn't it obvious?" Reyna asked him. "Gaia and the giants have control over the labyrinth. And they trapped us in it."

"But that means..."

"They have the Athena Parthenos. The camps are going to go to war against each other." she finished his sentence. "Essentially."


	9. Chapter 8

VIII

Annabeth

Annabeth knew that if it was her who had volunteered to go after the antidote with Geryon she would have backed out right now. She could not imagine going back to Tartarus. It was that horrible the first time. So when Geryon announced that the only cure to the poison, which was effectively killing Piper at the moment, resided in Tartarus she was very surprised that Percy decided to stay with the plan.

"What monster?" Jason asked.

"Anyone you like." Geryon responded.

Jason smirked as if a very pleasing idea had crossed his mind.

"Excluding me." Geryon qualified his previous statement.

The smirk was gone from Jason's face. "When do we leave?"

"Considering your friends has maybe two days to live, and the cure is at the very heart of Tartarus...Now might be a good time."

Jason looked to Percy and Hazel. They both nodded their readiness. "Lets go." he told Geryon.

Percy walked over to Annabeth and gave her a goodbye hug. "I'll be back." he told her. She nodded her head at that statement, not trusting herself to speak. She did not want Percy to go, to many things could go wrong down there. She knew that Jason and Hazel would do their best to protect him, but she also knew that if Percy could not defend himself, than the others were pretty much out of luck.

Annabeth saw Geryon place a small metal disk on the ground in front of him. "Lets get going." he barked.

Percy, Jason, and Hazel all took a position around the disk.

"What do we do now?" Hazel asked.

Geryon picked the disk up off the ground. "Everyone place a hand on it.". They all did. Geryon turned a smaller disk at the center and they all disappeared.

Annabeth stared in amazed horror at the scene in front of her. They were all gone. No goodbye's. Nothing. She did not even know something like that disk existed. She had never even heard of such a device. She looked to Leo who had a similar expression on his face.

"What was that?" she asked him.

"I think those were in Archimedes workshop below Rome. They must work like a teleportation device." Leo said. "But how did Gaia get to them? I thought they were all destroyed with the workshop."

Annabeth was not sure what he was talking about now. She had noticed that he carried that golden metal ball with him everywhere but she had not questioned where he had got it. Apparently, it was sometime when she was going after Arachne and the Athena Parthenos.

"Well...I guess we'll se them when they return with the antidote." Leo said as we walked back up to the helm of the Argo II.

"I guess so..." Annabeth said to herself. She turned around and walked down the steps leading below deck. _I knew that was going to happen _she thought _So why is it I can't get over the fact that they're gone. _

She knocked on Piper's door before she entered. She found Piper curled up in a ball with her hands pressed against her temples. Her face was paper white.

"Piper?" Annabeth asked shaking her arm. There was no response. "Piper!?" she asked again, her voice now concerned. The poison was not supposed to be that fast acting, she had been shot with arrow only two hours ago.

Annabeth heard a faint grown issue from Piper's mouth. She could not tell whether they were real words or not so she called her name again.

"Mhmm" Piper mumbled back. Her eyes were closed and her hands were still pressed against the side of her head.

"What's wrong?" she asked. She had a small towel in her hands and was wetting with water that still stood in a pitcher on the floor.

Piper rolled over onto her back and opened her eyes. Annabeth could see that they were filled with tears.

"My head...feels like...its going to...explode." she eventually got out.

Annabeth had never heard her in so much pain. Even after she had forcibly ripped that poisoned arrow out of her arm. She took the cloth she had moistened in water and dabbed at the arrow wound on her arm. The open wound had become a dark black color now and her arm was very swollen. She heard Piper yelp every time she touched her arm.

"Do you want anything?" Annabeth asked when she was done. The wound did not look much better, but the water would at least keep out any infection.

Piper shrugged her shoulders. "Do we have...any mortal drugs or medicines...onboard?" she asked, rubbing her head.

"Let me check." Annabeth did not know why she wanted mortal medicines. If the ambrosia had not worked, the probability that mortal drugs would was almost zero. But then again, poisons were odd like that. Chiron had used mortal drugs a couple of times at camp to cure certain ailments.

In the ships sick bay, Annabeth opened up a cabinet that held most of their stock of ambrosia ad nectar. She rummaged around until she found four small plastic bottles that contained little tablets. She had seen them before, at her dad's house in New York and San Francisco, but she had never used them. She assumed Piper knew what they were and walked back to her room.

"We have four of them." she said as she walked back into the room. She set each bottle down on her nightstand so that Piper could see them.

Piper pointed to the smallest bottle which contained circular tablets. Annabeth poured two into her hand and handed them to Piper, who proceeded to swallow both of them whole. "Why did you want mortal medicines?" Annabeth asked.

"The ones I took...they are supposed to cure...headaches for mortals. I thought...that they might work for this...too." she responded.

That's when she remembered the gel Geryon had given the. Annabeth pulled out the vile of gel that Geryon had given them to heal Piper's burned foot. It looked a lot like the same thing Chiron used as Camp Half-Blood (it was safer than continuously feeding everyone ambrosia and nectar). "Piper, this gel is supposed to heal your foot and ankle." she said holding up the vile. Piper nodded, her hands still pressed against her temples. She laid down and closed her eyes. Annabeth did not know whether it was in anticipation for pain or from actual tiredness.

She upended the vile onto her foot. At first, the gel did not appear be doing anything. It just stayed where it had been dumbed out. Then it started to expand and move across the burned portion of Piper's foot and ankle. Anywhere the gel touched, new skin and tissue developed, effectively healing the burns in a couple of minutes.

Judging by Piper's expression (she had opened her eyes), Annabeth assumed that the gel had worked as it was supposed to. "Is there anything else you want?" she asked Piper.

Piper shook her head no. Annabeth poured a cup of nectar and handed it to her.

"Drink this." she said "It might help some."

Piper drank the nectar. A little bit of color returned to her face.

"Thanks" she said, smiling weakly.

"Mhmm."

Piper put her head back on her pillow and closed her eyes. Annabeth assumed she was asleep after she had not moved for several minutes. She exited the room quietly and went above decks.

It was night now. Thousands of stars lit up the sky. Familiar constellations became difficult to locate, even to Annabeth who had the majority of the memorized. This was one of the few times that she had bothered to come up at night since she and Percy had gotten out of Tartarus. She did not know why, but Tartarus had made her develop a small fear of the dark. She had woken up many times at night, thinking there were monsters or other demons in her cabin. They had turned out to be shadows.

Annabeth saw a bright light flash off to her left. She instinctively pulled the spare the knife she was wearing and turned to face whatever monster was there. It turned out not be a monster.

It was a god.

Athena.

"Mom?" Annabeth said, stunned. She had never been personally visited by Athena before. She had only ever seen her on Olympus.

"The giants have risen, Annabeth. They intend to raise Gaia on the Feast of Spes." "We already knew that."

"They intend to sacrifice Percy and Jason to raise her." Athena said calmly. "You sent them all into a trap."

"What!?" Annabeth yelled. "It was a trap!?"

"Yes...Geryon had been working for Gaia and the giants since the beginning."

"Why was he in Tartarus then? Me and Percy saw him!" she was still yelling. She could not believe that they had sent them into a trap.

"Think about it. Wasn't it convenient that you and Percy made it out of Tartarus so easily?"

"What do you mean easily. We had to fight our way through Nyx and Tartarus himself. Empousae. Arachne. Yah, we had real easily." She had never been so mad at a god. _How does she think we had it easy in Tartarus?!_

"Annabeth! Think about it! Isn't it convenient that Iapetus found you before another Titan? Isn't it convenient Damasian arrived right before Tartarus attacked? It was set up. Gaia set it up!"

"She wanted us to get out?" Annabeth said quietly. It was making sense. _Tartarus could have destroyed us easily if he had wanted _she realized.

"Yes." Athena responded.

"We sent them into a trap?"

"Yes."

"I sent Percy to his death." This was a statement. A horrible realization. Why had she been so quick to trust Geryon. He had tricked Percy and her before.

"Not yet." Athena said.

Annabeth's head shot up, "What?"

"You have 10 days before the feast."

"Ten days." Annabeth repeated, still in shock. They had a chance.

"Yes. Ten days. If you don't find them in ten days, the giants will kill them, Gaia will rise, and Olympus will be destroyed. Ten days." Then Athena disappeared.


	10. Chapter 9

IX

Percy

Tartarus was just how Percy remembered. Not that he wanted too. The place was horrible. It was home to the worst monsters in all of greek mythology. And probably half of them would like him at this very moment.

Percy took a breath and immediately remembered the horribly acidic air of tartarus. It was like breathing liquid fire. His lungs burned as he tried to get oxygen to them. After finally getting himself under control (which was a lot more difficult then he would have liked), he looked over at Jason and Hazel. They were both collapsed on the ground.

He could here Hazel breathing raggedly, like the air was full of particles of glass (the acidic quality was not much better). Jason was coughing like he had just inhaled water (not that Percy knew what that felt like). Geryon was standing to side casually, watching the three of them struggle.

"You...survived down...here...for fourteen...days?" Jason gasped, beginning to control his coughing. "How?"

"No idea." Percy responded. He really did not know.

Hazel had finally managed to stand up and was breathing more normally now. She pulled shards of glass from her hands and hair. "Well...where too?" she asked. Her voice sounded like she had just had her throat melted.

Geryon pointed behind him, "That way."

"For how long?" Jason gasped. He was still having issues breathing. Percy did not know whether or not being a son of Jupiter had anything to do it, but Jason was defiantly having difficulty.

"A day or more, in mortal time." Geryon answered. "Lets go." He started walking away.

Percy looked to his friends. The air quality was already starting to cause blisters appear on their skin. He shrugged his shoulder and said "I guess we follow him."

The three of them walked off towards the center of Tartarus.

"How do we know we can trust this guy?" Jason asked after about twenty minutes or so of walking. Both his and Hazel's skin were bright red and bleeding his places.

"We don't. But we don't have much other choice."

Jason sighed. "I guess not." he said and they continued walking.

Percy remembered Geryon mentioning the five rivers of the underworld, when he told them what the cure was. But he had not seen a single river so far. He and Annabeth had seen three of five on their first trip through...so where were they all now.

And not a few seconds later he heard Hazel gasp from up ahead. Percy climbed up the hill of glass and saw a orange streak of fire flowing across the landscape, disappearing into the distance. The river Phlegethon.

"The Phlegethon." he said.

"The what?" Hazel and Jason said together.

"Its a river of fire. You drink from it and acts like nectar." he said. He qualified the previous statement with, "Kind of". While nectar tasted good and sweet. the Phlegethon tasted like gasoline and pepper juice.

Geryon was several hundred yards ahead of them. _He acts like he owns the place _Percy thought. He also noted that no monsters had been sighted since they had entered Tartarus. He did not know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

They continued walking in silence. As Percy trudged through the broken glass that made up the landscape of Tartarus he thought of Bob. Bob was the only he and Annabeth had survived Tartarus the first time. Now he was almost certainly dead and reforming._ My friends, tell the sun and the stars hello for me. And be strong. This may not be the last sacrifice you must make to stop Gaea. _Those were the last words that Percy would probably ever hear Bob say. When he got back he had to remember to tell the stars hello.

"Another river?" Hazel said. She was standing on a hill about hundred feet in front of him. Percy sighed. He hated the rivers of the underworld. They were the worst most vile bodies of water he had even met. They were meant to torture and kill you. That was not the nature of water.

As Hazel said that Percy began hearing the voices. They were not like normal voices. They were twisted cries of pain and agony. Sounds Percy had hear far too many times. He climbed the hill and stood beside her as a dark, briny river flowed beneath them.

Where as the Phlegethon was slow moving, like lava, the Acheron was a torrent of fast moving water and rapids. The voices continued their eternal shrieks of pain.

"This is the Acheron...isn't it?" Hazel asked. "The river of pain."

It was too horrible for Percy to forget, The hundreds of voices calling them murderers as they flowed by. "Yes. Annabeth and I jumped across it into the Mansion of Night when we were down here." Hazel did not respond.

Jason had caught up now. "Another river?!" he said exasperated. Percy wondered briefly what he had against rivers until he remembered that these were barely rivers.

"That means we're getting closer. Come on."

He and Jason began walking after Geryon, who had not stopped or slowed since he had begun this walk. They made some fifty feet before they realized that Hazel had not followed them.

"Hazel!" Jason called, spotting still standing atop the hill, her eyes still glued to the river. "Hazel!" he called again. This time she turned and walked after them.

Percy watched as she walked up. No one had exactly been cheery since they had entered Tartarus, but Hazel at least acted somewhat happy. That expression had disappeared completely from her face. She appeared sad now. Her head was down and she was walking much more slowly than before.

When she reached them, she did not stop, she just kept walking. No words were spoken. Nothing. Percy looked to Jason for some sort of answer. Jason just shrugged._"It's the River of Pain. The ultimate punishment for the souls of the damned— murderers, especially." _Percy remembered Annabeth saying. _Maybe she knows someone who's there. _

"Jason?" he asked, "Can you fly down here and see how far we have to go? I don't know how much time has passed in the mortal world but its defiantly been longer than the few hours we have been here."

Jason jumped into the air and flew around. "I seem okay." he said. And he flew away. Percy watched him for a several seconds and then remembered that Hazel and Geryon were almost a quarter-mile ahead of him. He ran to catch up.

Running in Tartarus is not nearly the same as in the mortal world. Its like running across a beach; close to impossible. It took the better part of two hours before he finally caught up to Hazel. Jason had not returned yet, which worried Percy some. Anything could go wrong in Tartarus.

He looked over at Hazel. She was still trudging along the same way she had been since they had seen the Acheron. He was starting to worry about her some.

"Where's Jason?" she asked.

"He's flying ahead to see how much farther he have to travel." He purposefully left out the detail that he had been gone for almost two hours. He did not worry Hazel any more than she already seemed.

Percy scanned the Tartarus sky for Jason. And much to his surprise, he saw Jason flying back his way. He landed next to Percy and told him the news.

"Maybe like ten more miles or so."

"What took so long?"

"I met some company." Jason said, "Dracanae. A lot of them."

Percy's expression turned to one of worry. Dracanae were not something to mess with. And defiantly not a group of them.

"They're gone now. I killed them." Jason reassured him.

That calmed Percy down some, but it seemed odd that they had not seen a single monster since they entered and Jason just happens to find and kill a bunch a dracanae the second he is out of sight of Geryon.

"I think Geryon may be walking us into a trap?" Percy voiced his opinion.

"What gave you that idea? The fact that there hasn't been a single monster attack the entire time we've been here." Jason said sarcastically.

"That exactly."

"Well we don't have much of a choice anymore."

"I guess not." Percy said.

They continued walking. It took what felt like hours before they reached a massive hill. Hazel was the first one up it. She had grown better as they left the Acheron farther behind. Percy and Jason followed. What lay before them was a massive lake of liquid.

Percy could see the five rivers emptying into it. The Styx contributed masses of pollution and mortal items into the lake from the west. A river or mirky white liquid flowed in from the north. The River Lethe. The river of forgetfulness. The Phlegethon slowly pressed fire towards the center of the lake. The Acheron flowed in from the south, emptying in a massive roaring waterfall. And the River Cocytus flowed in from the east, ice forming at the banks of the lake around the river's mouth. Surrounding the massive lake was an area of marshland.

"Welcome to the center of Tartarus, to the very heart of Chaos." Geryon announced.


	11. Chapter 10

X

Percy

Percy knew their was no way that three powerful demigods could walk through Tartarus without getting attacked by a powerful monster. But he could hope could he not.

The four of them; Percy, Jason, Hazel, and Geryon stood atop a hill that overlooked the Lake of Chaos. The lake itself was really a ring of pools set within each other, which caused short waterfalls to cascade towards its center. The lake was blue at the center, a lot like normal water, but turned a grey color the father away you got. The edges were almost black.

"Water from the center works best." Geryon said as he started towards the surrounding marshland.

"How are we supposed to get water from there? I don't see a boat." Jason said.

"You could fly." Percy suggested.

"Yah."

They started walking down the hill, but Hazel remained rooted to the spot, staring at the Acheron.

"Hazel!" Jason barked. He was hoping that his voice would snap her out of it. It did not. "Hazel!" he said again, now walking back towards her. He stood in front of her, blocking her view of the river. He said her name again.

"What?" she said, completely stunned.

"What is so enticing about that river?" Jason asked. "You've been staring at it for a couple of minutes now. For the SECOND time!"

"I...I..," she stammered. "I thought I heard..." she trailed off.

"You thought you heard what?"

"Just some...familiar voices."

Jason looked at her strangely, as if he did not completely believe the story. But there was no way he could disprove her so he just said "Let's go then."

He, Hazel, and Percy walked down the hill together after Geryon.

From above, the marshland had appeared much nicer. Up close, it was more like bog. Horrible mounds and globs of who knew what were piled across the landscape. Portions of the ground were nothing but quicksand, and bubbled almost constantly. Every once and while, a bubble would burst near the trio and shower them in globs of whatever.

"This place is horrible!" Hazel said, as she picked goop out her hair for a third time.

"Really?! I hadn't noticed?" Jason said sarcastically. He was also covered in goop.

"Let's just keep going. It's not like this swamp can go on forever." Percy reasoned. "I think I can see the water from here."

That got the other two up. Unfortunately, Percy had completely lied. He could not see the water. He did not see anything but an endless plain of goop. They continued walking. Geryon had disappeared which worried Percy

They walked for what seemed like hours before they finally made it out of the marshland. Percy was beginning to wonder whether or not the marsh was enchanted to trap visitors when he stumbled over rock and fell into a beach of broken glass.

"You finally turned up?" came Geryon's voice. "I was beginning to wonder whether or not you would die in there."

Jason and Hazel emerged a couple of seconds later, covered in goop and plants from the bog.

"Well...that was lovely." Hazel said sarcastically, peeling several spiky leaves off her clothing. "Now what?" she asked Geryon.

"Well...you have two options. The first. You can go around and collect water from each river individually. A better antidote but much more time consuming. The second. You can go and grab water from the center of the lake. Somewhat less affective, but it will still work for you purpose."

"How long have we been gone in mortal time?" Jason asked.

_Good question _Percy thought. He and Annabeth had supposedly been gone for almost two weeks when it had felt more like two days.

Geryon looked at an odd watch on his wrist before answering "About a day and a half." he said.

"WHAT!?" they all said in unison.

"Three days?!"

"That's impossible."

"No way."

Geryon just smiled. He had no reason to lie to them about time. _Unless this is a stall _Percy realized. _Gaia could use him to trap us down here while she rises. _Percy did not share that cheerful thought with the other two.

"I guess we don't have much of choice but to go for option two. We don't have time to collect water from each river." Jason said. "I'll go and fly over the lake and just drop down to get some of the water. That's probably safest."

Percy agreed with him. It probably was safest. He would have volunteered but he did not have any idea if he had the same control over underworld water. He had issued some control over the Cocytus and Lethe before but he had never tried with the Styx, Phlegethon, or Acheron. And now was defiantly not the time to find out if he could. "I'm okay with that."

Jason nodded, not waiting for Hazel's answer. He walked over to Geryon, "How do I collect it."

Geryon produced an empty pitcher of lemonade. "This will do." he said handing it to Jason.

"Anything else."

Geryon did not say anything to that question, "You better hurry, your friend may only have a few a more hours before the poison kills her."

Jason nodded and jumped into the air. Percy watched as he flew towards the bluer area of the lake. The closer he got to it, the more Percy had trouble seeing him, like an invisible veil had was separating them. He saw Jason dive down with the pitcher and scoop up some water, before turning around and coming back.

_That was way too easy _Percy thought. He had expected some guardian monster or being to be waiting for them. Unfortunately he was right.

Jason was almost back when the center of the lake erupted in a massive bubble. Jason faltered in mid-air, almost dropping the pitcher of water.

_DEMIGODS WOULD DARE TRY TO STEAL FROM ME. I HAVE ENOUGH POWER TO DESTROY OLYMPUS AND DEMIGODS THINK THAT THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH THEFT. _

The voice was something Percy had never wanted to here again. It was like a mountain was speaking. This was not any normal being. This was worse than the gods, worse than giants, worse even then Gaia. This was Tartarus. "JASON-COME ON!" Percy yelled. He knew if Jason was still over the lake in a couple of seconds they were screwed.

Jason flew at the banks faster than Percy had even seen. But it sill was not enough. A massive dark purple hand, made partially of molten lava rose out of the lake and caught him.

"NO!" Hazel and Percy both yelled.

But Jason was way ahead of them. As he was caught, he tossed the pitcher. How the water remained in it while it was tumbling through the air, Percy would never know, but it did. Hazel caught the glass.

Geryon pulled another lengthy sword. "Now to break the deal.". Fortunately for the demigods, Percy had seen this coming for hours now. He had Riptide already pulled and severed Geryon's hand in one fell slash. And with another decapitated him.

"PERCY!" Hazel tossed him the pitcher. "WE NEED MONSTER BLOOD FOR IT TO WORK!"

He had completely forgotten. He held the pitcher beneath Geryon's severed arm and watched as two drops of golden blood fell into the water. The liquid changed upon contact with the monsters blood. Instead of the deep blue it was before it became a horrible dark black, like the clouds above them. Percy also pulled the small disk that Geryon had transported them with from his body. He tossed both to Hazel.

"GO BACK!" he yelled. "I'LL GET JASON."

Percy ran off towards Tartarus who had completely risen from the lake. He had Jason hanging upside down from his hand.

_YOU CAN NOT DEFEAT ME DEMIGOD. NOT EVEN THE GODS CAN DEFEAT ME._

Percy stabbed at the giant's booted foot. Riptide bounced right off. Percy stared at, distracted for half a second. And that was his worst mistake. Tartarus reached down and grabbed him with his other hand.

Percy heard Hazel yell something but he could not quite tell what it was. He saw her running towards them. "NO HAZEL! STOP! GO BACK TO THE ARGO II!" he yelled. He attempted to swing Riptide at Tartarus's hand but he could not reach.

Percy looked down again and saw that Hazel had stopped. "GO HAZEL!" He saw her take out the disc and turn the middle portion before disappearing. _She's gone_ Percy thought, relieved. Then he remembered his and Jason's more immediate issue.

_GERYON DID AS HE WAS SUPPOSED TOO. NOW GAIA HAS HER TWO SACRIFICES. AND SHE SHALL RISE AND OVERTHROW OLYMPUS! _Tartarus said. He walked back towards the center of the lake.

_PREPARE YOURSELVES DEMIGODS, FOR YOU WILL BE THE FIRST AND LAST OF YOU KIND TO KNOW WHAT CHAOS TRULY IS. _And they sank beneath the water towards a black swirling hole.


	12. Chapter 11

XI

Hazel

Hazel felt herself collapse onto the deck of the Argo II. It was night and she could just barely make out the landscape. It was exactly the same as when they had left. _Did Geryon lie to us again _she thought. _Were we only gone hours, not days. _

"Hazel!" she heard Leo yell.

She sat up and saw Leo running toward her.

"Your back!?" He sounded surprised. Like he had not anticipated that she would return. _Oh yeah, I was supposedly going back with Geryon _she remembered.

She nodded, and stood up. "Where's Piper?" she asked, holding up the pitcher of black liquid. That was when Annabeth came outside.

"Leo? Who are you talking..." she saw Hazel standing there. "Hazel!" she yelled, running towards her. "Do you have the antidote?"

Hazel gestured towards the pitcher. "Yes."

Annabeth grabbed her by the wrist and forcibly dragged her across the deck of the ship and down the stairs. They stopped outside Piper's door.

"How is she?" Hazel asked.

Annabeth gave her look that told her everything she needed to know. "You've been gone for almost two days. As Geryon said, she's just barely alive." Annabeth opened the door and they walked in.

Piper was laying face up on her bed. She looked horrible. Her hair was matted and tangled into almost knots. Her face was a bright red, like it had sunburned. The rest of her skin was covered in irregular blotches of red. Her right arm was swollen to probably four or five times its regular size and was colored anywhere from black to light grey. Her breathing was ragged and irregular.

"Piper?" Annabeth said, carefully shaking her arm. No response. Annabeth tried again. Still nothing. "Hazel...pour some of that liquid into two cups. One completely full, and another about halfway,"

Hazel assumed that she would have Piper drink one of the cups and would pour the other one directly onto her arm, like she did the nectar. She poured both glasses and handed them to Annabeth.

As she thought, Annabeth poured the half-full glass of antidote onto Piper's arm. When the liquid made contact with her skin, it began to steam and turned a dark green color. For a second, Hazel thought the liquid was not going to do anything, that it was a lie. Then the liquid caught fire.

"What the…" Hazel and Annabeth said in unison, jumping from their sitting positions. The fire was a light green, like greek fire, and was quickly enveloping Piper's arm.

Hazel grabbed a cup of water which a had been sitting on the floor, and was getting ready to douse the fire with it, when it vanished. Just gone. It had been there one second and it was just gone the next. No smoke, nothing.

Annabeth approached warily. She shook Piper's arm again. "Piper?" she asked.

"mmmmmmmmm..." Piper opened her eyes slightly.

Annabeth grabbed the other cup of liquid, which was still black. "Drink this." she said, holding the cup up to her mouth.

Piper lifted her head and sipped the liquid tentatively. Nothing happened. She drank some more. Still nothing. Annabeth upended the rest of cup into her mouth.

"Any better?" she asked Piper.

Piper sat up on her bed and nodded. "Much." she said. Her arm was not nearly as swollen as it had been and it was almost back to its original color. The rest of her skin was still as a light pink color, but even that was fading away. She was almost back to normal.

Annabeth turned to Hazel, "Can you get some water and food?" she asked. It had not even occurred to her that Piper had probably not eaten or drank anything for almost two days. She nodded and walked out.

She grabbed a pitcher of water and some bread and crackers. She did not know what exactly Annabeth had wanted her to get but she thought that it was probably best to go with something small.

She walked back to Piper's room to find it empty. Hazel set the plate of bread and crackers down along with the water, "Piper?! Annabeth?!" she called. _Where could they have gone _she thought. She walked over to Annabeth's door, assuming that was the only other place they would be.

She knocked on Annabeth's door. "Annabeth?" she asked. No answer. _Where are they. _

That was when Annabeth appeared behind her. "What?" she asked.

Hazel spun around. "Where were you? You weren't in Piper's room...or your own?"

"All of us are up on deck, discussing how exactly we are going to be getting to Athens." she explained.

"What's wrong with flying?" Hazel asked.

"While you were gone, we got some...godly knowledge...that we won't be able to get in that way?"

_Great _she thought. She sighed, "Alright. That makes sense. Is Piper up there too? Because she's not in her room."

Annabeth nodded, "She asked what she had missed since you guys left. So I told her what was going on with Athens and she said that she wanted to help."

The fact that Annabeth had actually allowed Piper out of her room before they were sure the antidote had fully worked showed how much trouble they were all in. Because Annabeth was normally the super cautious one. "Ok then. Let's go." she said.

They both walked to the front of the ship, and up the steps outside. Sunlight was just starting to peak out above the mountains, making the surroundings look much more formidable. She saw that Piper was sitting against the side of the ship. She looked a lot better than she had even when Hazel had seen her several minutes ago. She still looked slightly pale, but otherwise fine. Her arm looked completely normal.

_At least Geryon did not lie about something _she thought. And then she remembered, _Jason and Percy! _She had completely forgotten that they were still trapped in Tartarus. She looked around desperately for the disk that she had used to come here but she did not see it. _Leo probably. _

She looked over at him to see if he had it but he was instead furiously pressing buttons on the Archimedes sphere. _He doesn't have it _Hazel concluded. _I guess we'll have to find it later _she thought as she walked over to the rest of the group.

She sat down to next to Frank, who did not seen happy to see her.


	13. Chapter 12

XII

Frank

Frank was the only one at the meeting that knew the whole story. Annabeth and Leo thought they did, but they were missing a few crucial details. Piper and Hazel knew next to nothing. But then again, knowledge was not always good for you.

It had been two nights ago when Mars had invaded Frank's dreams, several hours after Hazel had left for what had possibly been forever. It was the same night that Annabeth had had her vision of Athena.

After Hazel had left with Jason and Percy to go after the antidote in Tartarus, Frank had locked himself in his cabin and refused to come out. He could not believe that Hazel had made the choice to give herself to a monster in order to get the antidote. He knew that without it Piper would die, and with her, the quest to save Olympus from Gaia. But why did she agree to to essentially being enslaved by monster? Was there really no other deal they could have made with Geryon?

_I guess not _he thought as he sat on his bed. _Why is she so sure that she'll be able to shadow travel back? She's only ever done it once. With Nico's help at that. _He didn't understand Hazel's reasoning at all. But he had learned not to fight her when her mind was already made up. There was no winning that argument.

He sat in his room for what was probably hours, before he went to sleep. Looking back on it, Frank was pretty sure that that was a good thing, because the dream he would have was not one he wanted to have.

Frank knew that being visited by an immortal being in dreams was a bad thing. So when he saw Mars standing in front of him, he tried to wake himself immediately. Unfortunately, Mars would not allow for that.

"You can not resist an audience with a god." he chuckled. "Don't try again."

"Why are you here?" Frank asked. His father was the last person he wanted to see right now.

"To warn you." he said. "You will not be able to get to Athens on your present course. A dark and ancient magic has been placed around the city. You and your friends have already been driven off course by hundreds of miles, just for being related to the Gods. We can not even see what is going on within the city. You stand no chance of getting in by air. NOT EVEN I COULD GET IN THAT WAY."

Frank knew it was bad if the God of War and battle doubted his own ability to siege a city. _It must be super heavily guarded _Frank thought. "Thanks for the info." he said sarcastically. He really wanted Mars to leave at that moment.

"My warning is not finished yet. If I leave now, you and all your friends will be die." Mars responded, as if reading his thoughts (which he probably was).

Frank sighed. He was really sick if hearing that ultimatum. _Listen to me or everyone will die. _He had to have heard that at least five times. "Go on."

"You, Frank Zhang, are a descendent of Periclymenus, a son of Poseidon. Your lineage already granted you the Legacy of Poseidon, and thus an amount of his power. Combined with being a son of Mars makes you the only demigod in the world to hold power over two of the divine forces; water and war. Your lineage as descendent of Poseidon is the only thing that will save you. You opposition already knows that a son of Poseidon accompanies you, but your power over the sea remains unknown. You must use it, or you, your friends, and all of Olympus will fall to the giants."

Frank's view point shifted. He was in the middle of a battle. Giants surrounded him, fighting his friends and the gods. Except for one. Alcyoneus. He approached the limp body of a demigod with a horrible, curved sword raised above his head. Frank tried to run but he was frozen in place. He knew it was Hazel that was unconscious. He knew that he was about to witness her death. He tried to move again but could not. Alcyoneus brought the sword down in a horrible arc...and the vision faded.

He was back with Mars.

"That is the fate of Olympus and your entire demigod party, if you do not master the Legacy of Poseidon." And with that single ominous statement, the dream dissipated and Frank awoke.

Frank had told no one of their impending fate. He had tried for days to figure out what the "Legacy of Poseidon" was, to no avail. He could not control water like Percy, and beyond controlling water he had no idea what "The Legacy of Poseidon" meant.

And so, while Annabeth and Leo were trying to find ways around flying into Athens, Franks was desperately trying to figure out how to use his powers as a descendent of Poseidon. He had also been desperately hoping that Hazel would not be able to get away from Geryon. That she would be trapped with him.

While that sounded horrible, Frank knew that if she was being held captive by Geryon she could not be killed by Alcyoneus. And thus he would not have to master a power he could not figure out. Then again, that would bring the group down to six members, not enough to defeat their enemies according to the Prophecy of Seven.

And so, when Hazel appeared with Annabeth to join him, Leo, and Piper at their meeting, he was not necessarily happy to see her. Now he would have no choice but to master the Legacy of Poseidon. DEFINITELY NOT something he wanted to have to do.

He did not say or do anything when Hazel sat down next to him. Instead, Annabeth immediately began the meeting.

"OK. So are there any ideas on how to get into Athens, now that flying is out?" she asked. It was general question for anyone to answer. But nobody did. Only two of them had given the matter any thought, so they were kind of lacking in ideas.

"Could we just walk in?" Piper suggested.

That was a possibility but not a good one. They would be killed or captured before they made anywhere close to Athens on foot.

"I think that would be a last resort." Annabeth said, "We won't be able to fight our way to the giants, and we know every semi-demonic figure in mythology will be guarding the city."

"I might be able to fly in." Frank suggested. "As an animal I mean. The monsters seem pretty confused when I shape-shift."

"Way to risky." Annabeth responded.

"Agreed." Hazel and Piper said together.

_Great. I can't be protective, but she can _Frank thought.

"I think Frank's plan might work." Leo chimed in. "I don't think monsters can sense him as well when he's animal. He might have the best chance of getting through the defenses."

"But how are we going to get in. He can't transport us when he's an animal. And we can't just follow him up to the city." Hazel countered.

"Maybe he can..."

"NO." Frank interrupted him. "She's right, it won't work." They sat there for several minutes in silence thinking. Then Frank had an idea. A crazy one that probably would not work, but he could at least suggest it. "Do any rivers flow through Athens?" he asked.

He assumed that Annabeth would know. She knew essentially everything like that. Surprisingly though, it was Leo who spoke first.

"The Ilissos used too. I don't know if it does anymore."

"It does." Annabeth confirmed, "Why?"

Frank had only told Percy and Hazel that he had any relation to Poseidon. The others did not know. _But it might be the only way into Athens _Frank thought. There was not much choice.

"You all know that I have the ability to shapeshift?" They all nodded. "That ability comes from one of my ancestors, Periclymenus, who was a..."

"A son of Poseidon!" Annabeth finished.

"Yes. So I'm indirectly related to Posiedon. And thus, should have some power over water. I might be able to get us in through the river."

"Have you tried this before?" Hazel asked him. She had known of his lineage prior, and yet she seemed most surprised by his plan.

"Ummmm...not really."'

And that is when the Telekhine's attacked.


	14. Chapter 13

XIII

Frank

Frank was pretty sure all memory he had of nice dogs and cute sea lions would be gone by the time this battle was over.

telekhine's were not a pretty sight. They were about seven feet tall, at least a foot taller than any one of the demigods. Their faces were very much like that of a dog. A big dog. Their bodies were sleek black color, like seals and seal lions. Their feet were flippers while their hands appeared almost human, save the six inch razor-sharp claws.

Four landed on deck behind the Frank and Hazel. Two more landed behind Leo. And another six stayed in the air.

"Ummm...Hello?" Frank asked. He was not sure whether or not these were friendly monsters. Not that their were many "friendly monsters".

One of the monsters growled back. "Gaia did not tell us to bring you unharmed. So I would suggest you relinquish your weapons."

Frank looked around and saw that Hazel had her hand on the hilt of her cavalry sword, Annabeth had pulled her replacement knife, and that Leo had lit his hand on fire. Frank's bow and arrow were laying on the ground behind him. He had a feeling that if he so much as looked at them, the telekhines would tear them all apart.

No one moved a muscle. The situation stayed exactly as it had been.

"Relinquish you weapons or we will bring you to Gaia dead." the telekhine growled.

Frank did not see a way out of this problem. He had a feeling that the monster was being very truthful. He and the other telekhine's would have no issue killing all of them. They were outnumbered three to one.

He heard Annabeth mumble something about them bluffing...that Gaia would want them alive, but Frank was not so sure. Their positions held.

The telekhine stepped forward and all of Hades broke lose.

Annabeth threw her knife so fast that it was a literal blur. Frank did not not have time to register whether or not it had hit its mark because he turned and grabbed his bow.

He loaded an arrow and shot one of the creatures out of the air. Two more swooped down at him, joining the two that had attacked him from behind. Frank loaded two more arrows and fired. The telekhine's broke them in half with their claws.

Frank fired another shot into the air, but the Telekhine he had aimed for dropped onto the deck, making the shot miss by tens of feet.

He dodged one of the Telekhine's claws which had suddenly swiped at him. Now he wished he had his spear with him. It would made things a lot easier. He was now being challenged by five telekhine's.

He slowly backed away from them. He saw that Annabeth was in combat with another one of the monsters. Hazel was attacking two with her sword...and winning. Leo had one bound in ropes and was engaged with another. One of the monsters lay with a knife sticking from his head, unable to move. That left three in the air. None were going after Piper.

Frank fired another shot, hoping for a lucky hit, but the telekhine's were way ahead of him. As he shot, one ran at him, breaking his wooden arrow and swung at him with his claws. Frank ducked the blow and was immediately met by another one of the monsters.

He fired off a shot and hit the attacking telekhine. It crumbled into dust. _That puts two down. Now how about the other ones. _He only had four arrows left. And there were four telekhine's targeting him. He was screwed.

He looked around again, hoping that Annabeth or Hazel had finished off one of their opponent and could help him. But it was Piper who came to his rescue.

"STOP!" she yelled. Her voice still had not fully returned but the charmspeak in it was evident. It was like four or five Piper's were speaking in perfect unison. All of the telekhine's stopped their attack in response to her voice.

Frank, Annabeth, and Hazel stopped too, but they quickly regained their minds and finished off the remaining telekhine's onboard. Frank shot the rest out of the air with his bow.

"Thanks, Piper." Frank said, gathering up some if his arrows that head fallen extraneously about the ship.

She nodded weakly in response. Her face had paled again and she looked barely conscious. _The charmspeak must have drained a lot of her energy _Frank thought as he finished picking up his arrows. He had shot three over the side of the ship in the fight, giving him seven now. 

_"_Frank. Can you get nectar?_" _he heard Hazel yell.

He walked around to the other side of the Argo and found Annabeth, Hazel, and Leo standing in a semicircle around Piper. From what Frank could see, she was curled up into a ball, and not moving. Annabeth was knelt down beside her, saying something.

"What's wrong with Piper?"

"Just get some nectar!" Hazel yelled back. "Quickly!"

Frank raced down the steps below deck and grabbed two pitchers of the golden liquid from their supply, before running it back above decks.

He handed the pitchers to Hazel who set it down on the ground beside Piper. Annabeth took a cloth she had in her hand and dipped it in one of the glasses before placing the cloth back on Piper's forehead.

"What's wrong with her?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Annabeth replied. "It might be an after effect of the poison or antidote. Or it could be something else."

Frank knelt down opposite of Hazel who was pouring nectar into a small cup. Piper's eyes were closed and her face was deathly pale, almost white. She looked worse now then she had when she was poisoned.

"What are you going to do?" he asked Annabeth.

"I'm going to see if this nectar wakes her up any. But I don't think that giving her anymore is a good idea. Too much of it could literally burn her to ashes." she said as she filled a syringe with nectar.

Frank gave the syringe an odd look.

Annabeth held it up, "What? I was trained in battlefield medicine at camp. They showed us how to administer nectar to someone who's unconscious…with a syringe. Normally I would wait to see if she wakes up but I don't know what the cause is. She might not wake up anytime soon."

She took the syringe and injected the nectar into Piper's arm. They all sat back and waited to see if it had any affect. After about a minute, Piper slowly opened her eyes. She was still pale but the nectar appeared to have its desired effect.

"Piper? How do you feel?" Hazel asked. She had poured a second glass of nectar

Piper tried to sit up, but was immediately stopped by Annabeth, "Just lay there for now."

Hazel repeated her question.

"Tired." Piper responded. She yawned as if to prove her point.

Frank looked over at Annabeth, trying to see whether or not she knew what was wrong with her. What he saw was not good.

Annabeth was now almost as pale as Piper. She knew exactly what was wrong and it was not good. "Okay. Can you stand?"

Piper nodded yes and stood up. Frank noticed that she still heavily favored her broken ankle. _I guess that stuff Geryon gave us didn't work so well. _He watched as the three girls disappeared below decks. Then he remembered the telekhine that was still paralyzed behind them.

He approached the monster with an arrow knocked. "Who sent you here to attack us?". He already knew the answer but he needed to be sure.

"We work for whoever wants to destroy the gods. That leaves only one being for us to serve." the telekhine replied in rasping breath.

"Where is Gaia now?" Frank did not expect an answer to that question. So he was surprised when the telekhine told him that she was awaiting two demigod sacrifices to rise in Athens.

"Can you get us into Athens?" Frank asked. An idea was forming in his mind. If only he could convince this thing to help them.

"Why would I do that? The gods through us into Tartarus for crafting some of their most powerful weapons. Poseidon's trident for example. They chose those lumbering cyclops over us. Gaia had promised to return is to our former status if we aid her in the destruction of Olympus."

That sent off an alarm bell in Frank's head. _These things crafted the trident of Poseidon. _"I'm a descendent of Poseidon. What if I could get the Gods to raise you from Tartarus? I could get you you former status back if you help us into Athens?" It sounded like a decent deal to Frank.

The telekhine didn't think so. "We will never work for the gods. They have disgraced for the final time."

"Then have fun back in Tartarus." Frank replied, drawing his bow back. He had an arrow notched and aimed at the telekhine's head. He waited a couple of seconds. The telekhine was not going anywhere and he wanted to make sure it was not going to except hie deal.

He watched as the monsters eyes clouded with fear. "You can re-establish us as the smiths of the gods?"

"Yes." Frank replied. He was not one hundred percent certain he could keep his side of the deal but they were desperate now. They had to find away into Athens.

The telekhine lay there, thinking. Then he agreed.

Annabeth came up a minute later. Her face looked worried. She turned to Leo, "Can you get us too the Temple of Asclepius in Epidaurus?" she asked "Quickly?".

"I guess. Its on the Peloponnesian peninsula right?"

Annabeth nodded.

Frank broke in, "Then to Athens. I have a way to get us in."

Annabeth and Leo both spun around, "What? How?" they said in unison

Frank told them the plan.


End file.
